A reader in Michigan insists that the for-profit charter operator in Muskegon Heights obey the law protecting students with disabilities. If every activist did the same, it would force the charters to serve all children. She should get the ACLU to help her.
“If you look up Michigan legislator in the thesaurus it directs you to “stupidity” with a footnote to see the Term Limit fiasco of 1992. That being said, for those against the Charter movement MI charters were delivered a fairly major setback this past Thursday.
“I filed a formal complaint this past January against the Mosaica-run Muskegon Heights Public School Academy (first all-charter district) pursuant to alleged violations to the IEPs of every student age 3-26 and on 10 substantive violations. The soup to nuts (or rotten eggs) of special education violations. The MI Dept. of Ed found NONCOMPLIANCE for ALL 10 allegations. The director of special education was fired 6 weeks ago over this complaint (and a second for children, birth to age 3 that will be out in several weeks) and corrective action that includes compensatory education for the students has been ordered.
“This complaint highlights (or lowlights) the complete failure of Mosaica and these Charters to deliver even a semblance of a free appropriate public education. I will next file a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Ed Office of Civil Rights and allege the denial of FAPE. So while I have never met a parent in this regurgitated emergency manager-run district…score a victory for the children…and those of us fighting for public education.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But following the law will cut into profits, so it will be cheaper to purchase a few legislators instead. They already own the Governerd.
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Or pack up and move to another state.
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I used to live and teach in Michigan. Worked for the Lansing Schools. When I worked in Michigan, thank goodness, this lunacy wasn’t around. I really enjoyed teaching in an inner city school. We had fun. The kids learned. We laughed and cried together. We learned together unhampered by the FEDs. Teachers were respected and so were the students. Now when I look at schools, I think, “OY!”
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The super cut art and music in Lansing. It’s absolutely awful in Mich, right now.
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That’s great because charters never get the scrutiny that public schools do. I don’t think that states, like California, even have a budget that investigates compliance issues in the charter schools. In fact, California’s investigation of compliance in public schools is pretty bad. Our special education students are getting a bum deal in many instances and if the parents aren’t on these schools to place their children in the most appropriate environment, they won’t.
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TN wrote exemptions from IDEA protections into state laws for charters & virtual charters Given that Arne’s DoEd is not enforcing compliance, they don’t fear repercussions from the feds and can violate kids civil rights with impunity. My concern is that if a charter loses a due process hearing or litigation (e.g., the ruling is in the child’s favor having found the charter school in violation of the IEP), the losing party must pay all costs. How could the public school dollars be protected from paying legal expenses for charter school violators housed in their jurisdictions? Does anyone know? I would expect corporate charters to find a loophole to shift the costs to the public.
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I wonder if this will make the national news, particularly Fox News’ “Trouble with Schools” segments on Fox and Friends. Probably not. It’s a charter school. It doesn’t fit the media’s agenda.
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh64oX60z1Kqdo7wx0
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Very interesting. No Fox won’t show it since it is not a “gov’t” school. Wouldn’t you love to know what the credentials are of the people working there? At least your local news reports dirt on charters. Mine gives them free passes and loves to report negative things about public schools.
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Where is this school?
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I assume it is in the Houston area.
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No, it is in MIchigan, although Texas and MI are evil education-twins.
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Too bad that there aren’t Marcie Lipsitts in every state of the union!! She is very much needed by every parent who has a child with a problem!!!
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Yes, clone Marcie immediately!
Muskegon Heights is on the west side of Michigan, about half way up the coastline, right on Lake Michigan. It has a proud tradition of spawning many successful graduates, but at the same time is an area with steep poverty. Schools of choice and budget cuts led to a huge deficit and low test scores.
Instead of the legislature offering sustainable, useful help, they sent in an Emergency Manager to take over the school district. He fired all the teachers and brought in a for-profit company, Mosaica, to run the entire school district. Mosaica was hailed in the local newspaper as the great and wonderful saviour, riding in on a white horse to rescue Muskegon Heights from itself, a model for troubled school districts across the nation — the bright new future of education.
Instead, you can see what they brought. They did not offer adequate Special Education services until forced to do so by the complaint of a woman who does not even live anywhere near Muskegon Heights. She is simply a person who has dedicated her life to caring about kids and was alerted to the fact that the children were not receiving adequate Speech Therapy services and took the steps to assure those students were provided with the services they deserve and are legally entitled to.
Mosaica cannot manage to keep a consistent corps of teachers in the classroom. Out of a staff of 76, 33 have quit since the beginning of the year and three have been fired. Think of trying to run a school system in which losing teachers is so common-place it is the norm rather than the exception. Think of the inconsistency to the students and the necessity of the administration to have to constantly focus on hiring new teachers rather than improving the education of students.
Why are the teachers quitting? Poor pay, no job security, tough working conditions, and a hostile work environment are some of the reasons that have been expressed.
Say what you want about unions, they kept teachers on the job educating our kids. When you throw out the protections offered by a union, the job becomes a whole lot less desirable, teachers leave, and the kids suffer.
Certainly we, the wealthiest nation in the world, can do better than this.
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Thank you, Mary! I couldn’t have done it without you and your tireless dedication to public education and children.
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Marcie Lipsitt is a revolutionary hero in the still developing civil rights movement for special education. Thank you, Marcie.
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Thank you, Ellen…We are two of a kind.
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Lipsitt, you are an authentic Shero! Thank you!
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Anyone interested in reading the MI Dept. of Education Office of Special Education, Corrective Action Plan for the Mosaica-run Muskegon Heights Public School Academy will find them on the Facebook Special Education Wall of Shame, Michigan Alliance for Special Education or can email me at willowgreen1@ameritech.net. I am being told that the substantive nature of these corrective actions that begin with “Muskegon Heights Public Schools Academy must ensure compliance with the IDEA, MARSE and provide a Free Appropriate Public Education to every student with an IEP,” are perhaps the strongest ever ordered through a written complaint. Heads should role at the Muskegon ISD over these violations to hundreds of children’s IEPs.
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Truth be told, Mosaica started the year grossly underestimating the Special Education problems that existed at Muskegon Heights Public Schools before the change occurred. The MHPS high school was the lowest performing in the state. This district was noted as the poorest per capita in the state according to Great Start Readiness data. Our ISD was informed that the district was in such financial difficulty that the previous superintendent felt that the district could no longer process initial IEPs. The MAISD Special Ed director filed numerous complaints against the district as we tried to work with them in coming into compliance. While Mosaica started the year with compliance issues such as finding a competent psychologist, speech therapist, spec ed teachers, and social worker, they have rectified many of the issues that plagued the former district for years. They have been cooperative and I am hopeful that the processes in place will reap rewards for the students in the coming years.
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